Seek the Lord Day 7

Resurrection Lutheran Church commits to pray daily for the welfare of the congregation.  Jeremiah 29:13: "When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart."

[caption id="attachment_107" align="aligncenter" width="540"] Women's Holiday Brunch[/caption]

Almighty God, ruler of the universe, create in us a clean heart and stir up a right Spirit within us. We confess that we can be self-centered and self-seeking.  We ask for your forgiveness and healing. We also ask you to stir up your power and move us in the direction you would have us go. Stir up your spirit of courage and love, of wisdom and understanding within us. Thank you for the promise that you will always be with us and will never let us go. Thank you for the deep friendship and wonderful smiles that we have shared with each other.   Amen.

Seek the Lord Day 6

Resurrection Lutheran Church commits to pray daily for the welfare of the congregation.  Jeremiah 29:13: "When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart."



 

Gracious God,

As a congregation may we discern how to live out our calling, to call all people to a vibrant life of faith in Christ. Lord, we pray that our congregation is rooted and established in love, and may we have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ (Ephesians 3:17-18). May we trust in you Jesus, so that we can live out our calling and serve our world together in the name of Jesus. May our congregation stay united as a family and Holy Spirit, we ask that you stay close to our hearts, and that you walk with us each day. Amen

 

Seek the Lord Day 5

Resurrection Lutheran Church commits to pray daily for the welfare of the congregation.  Jeremiah 29:13: "When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart."

[caption id="attachment_99" align="alignleft" width="230"] Summer Stretch Fun[/caption]

Thanksgiving dinner is over, Christmas lies ahead. There are so many plans to make and tasks to complete during this Season of great joy and friendship.  Our church is experiencing a time in which we are looking to the future; trying to make plans, make decisions, all while we experience the joy of Christ's birth with our church family and friends.

As we look to the Lord, to each other and the Bible for guidance, I remember the words of Matthew 6:8 which reads in part... "for your Father knows what you need before you ask him." I find it helpful to remember that God is all-knowing and he knows I need his help. With that in mind, during this important time, I pray for patience over anxiety, peace over a conflict, and an open heart, so that I may not only lean on the Lord for guidance, but also listen.  For He knows my heart and He will guide me.

Thank you, Lord, for your promise to strengthen and guide your people.

Seek the Lord Day 4 Thanksgiving

Resurrection Lutheran Church commits to pray daily for the welfare of the congregation. Jeremiah 29:13: “When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart.”

Praise God from whom ALL Blessings flow

Thank you God for the richness of your blessings to us. All blessings come from You. Family, Faith, Food, our nation and our church all have been given by You. As we move through life, save us from the temptation of worshipping your gifts and help us to worship You, the giver of all gifts. As we struggle to learn your will and follow in your footsteps help us to learn from each other, help us to speak the truth in love, and grant us unity in mission as we thank You for being our Creator and Redeemer. Amen

 

Seek the Lord Day 3

Resurrection Lutheran Church commits to pray daily for the welfare of the congregation. Jeremiah 29:13: “When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart.”

[caption id="attachment_90" align="aligncenter" width="540"] Brilliant Sunshine during Youth Group Gathering[/caption]

Lord God,

I humbly come to you with both questions and hopes, thankful for your promise to hear, to answer, and to bless. Fill me with your light, your life, your love -- let light, life, and love flow through me, in my daily walk, in my discerning, and in my worship. When I worry, remind me that you are greater. Greater than my concerns and fears, greater than our community's challenges, greater than our hopes, and greater than all we can imagine.

Remind me too that during times of waiting, you are working in my heart. You are refining me. Shape my thoughts and my conversations to make me more like you. You have called us into community together; help me respond to my brothers and sisters, your beloved, with Christ like grace.

As the psalmist writes, Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be with me as I hope in you. For that, make me ever grateful. Amen.

 

Seek the Lord Day 2

Resurrection Lutheran Church commits to pray daily for the welfare of the congregation. Jeremiah 29:13: “When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart.”

Today, Lord, we pray for the welfare of our congregation, our friends and family with whom we worship You.  Guide our hearts and minds as we make decisions now before us.  Help each of us to offer loving understanding to others, even when our views may differ, so that we can show Your love to the world around us. We ask You to hear our prayers as we seek Your will to be done in everything we do.  In Jesus' name we pray.  Amen

Seek the Lord Day 1

Resurrection Lutheran Church commits to pray daily for the welfare of the congregation.  Jeremiah 29:13: "When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart."



Amazing Father

We praise you for giving us access to you through your Son. I will honor you by working to not become complacent in my faith. Lord, I pray that I will recognize your Spirit at work in my life. I know that only through making you my highest priority can I truly seek you with my whole heart. I also pray for my brothers and sisters in Christ as they too seek you with all their hearts. Amen

Smile in the Glory of the Lord

 

 

God's Glory can be seen in the smiles of God's children.

 

Stewardship Thought
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own, you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20

And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that you may always have enough of everything, and may provide in abundance for every good work. 2 Corinthians 9:8

 

 

Feast on the Glory of the Lord

 

A church picnic often feels like the appetizer to the Great Feast we will all enjoy around God's throne when we fully enter the Glory of the Lord.

Stewardship Thought
We should travel light and live simply. Our enemy is not possessions, but excess. John Stott (1921-2011 ) Anglican clergyman and writer

 

 

 

Seeing the Glory of the Lord

The wondrous yet simple beauty of Resurrection's pumpkin patch on a fall afternoon reminds us that the Glory of the Lord is all around us if we have but eyes to see. Picture by Leslee Donovan.

Stewardship Thought
I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc., is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charitable expenditures excludes them.  C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), English author and scholar

Flow in the Glory of the Lord

The high school mission trip last summer took a break by rafting in a white water stream.  It got them into the flow of God's Glory.

In the Holy Land are two ancient bodies of water. Both are fed by the Jordan River. In one, fish play and roots find sustenance. In the other, there is no splash of fish, no sound of bird, no leaf around. The difference is not in the Jordan, for it empties into both, but in the Sea of Galilee: for every drop taken in one goes out. It gives and lives. The other gives nothing. And it is called the Dead Sea. William Sloane Coffin, former pastor at Riverside Church, New York City

William Sloane Coffin, former pastor at Riverside Church, New York City

Promise in the Glory of the Lord

 

We were visiting Pearl Harbor a very sad place to visit when you think of all the lives lost. I looked across the water at the memorial and this rainbow was there as if God is just wrapping His arms around this graveyard. It really was an amazing view.  Nicole Hanselman

When I see the rainbow in the clouds, I will remember the eternal covenant between God and every living creature on earth.  Genesis 9:16

Giving is more than a responsibility—it is a privilege; more than an act of obedience—it is evidence of our faith. William Arthur Ward (1921-94), American educator

Together: the Glory of the Lord

The Blissenbach family works together on a devotional project at family camp.  Together they seek to see the Glory of the Lord.  In the same way Resurrection trusts, lives and serves together so as to recognize and respond to the Glory of the Lord.   Together we are fellow servants and not simply religious consumers.

One of the reasons churches in North America have trouble guiding people about money is that the church’s economy is built on consumerism. If churches see themselves as suppliers of religious goods and services and their congregants as consumers, then offerings are ‘payment.’ Doug Pagitt, author in the Emerging Church movement and pastor

Path to the Glory of the Lord

Jim and I feel God in the gentle whisper of leaves on a forest path.
Jeannie LeMere

Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. John 14:6.

Some people say, “Give till it hurts.” But God recommends that we give until it feels good. God loves a cheerful giver! Brian Kluth, pastor, generosity speaker and author

Looking Up Into The Glory of The Lord

I will lift up mine eyes to the hills-
from where will my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.  Psalm 121:1-2

Garth Natwick  Chugach Mountains, Alaska

Thought for the Day:
A Christian is one who does not have to consult a check book to see how wealthy he/she really is.

 

 

Praising the Glory of the Lord

"Even the youngest of God's miracles can praise the Glory of God."
Polly  Okeson-Chapek

Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his glory is above earth and heaven.   Psalm 148:13

Thought for the Day.
Christian stewardship begins with God at the center. When stewardship revolves around any other center, it is misconceived. The institution of the church is an inadequate substitute for the incarnate body of Christ. The church as institution is a means to the end of the church as the fellowship of all believers. Stewardship is servanthood to God through the church, not to the church institution.

Dan R. Dick in Revolutionizing Stewardship in the 21st Century: Lessons from Copernicus

Watching the Glory of the Lord

Be Still and Know that I am God. (Psalm 46)

The love that my three kids displayed by while they watched God's glory in the sunset. In all their lives I do not think they had seen such a sight and could not stop watching.
Nicole H.

Today's Thought
God looks at the heart, not the hand—the giver, not the gift.

Love Expressed as Glory of the Lord

"I saw God's Glory in the children I met when I went a trip to Africa in support of a nonprofit organization supporting education for poor or orphaned children." Brian T.

Love can be a powerful expression of the Glory of the Lord.

Today's Thought
You can give without loving. But you cannot love without giving. Amy Carmichael (1867-1951),
missionary to India

Harvesting the Glory of the Lord

When I see the bounty of a fall harvest -- and a happy little boy (my nephew Kai) playing in the corn -- I am in awe of God's power to continually make the world new again.  Kari Bjorhus

Stewardship Thought
The world asks: “What does a person own?” God asks, “How does a person use what he or she has been given?”

Honoring the Glory of the Lord

[caption id="attachment_6" align="aligncenter" width="540"] Glacier Peak Wilderness Area in Washington State[/caption]

"When I hike in the mountains, I frequently need to simply stop and soak in the Glory of the Lord that surrounds me on all sides."  Pastor John Keller

“There is more beauty than our eyes can bear, precious things have been put into our hands and to do nothing to honor them is to do great harm.”
―     Marilynne Robinson,     Gilead

How are your honoring the beauty of the Lord's Glory?